


The Princess and The Hero

by Nhitori



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Normalizes Trans Lives, Platonic Relationships, Post-Canon, Trans Female Character, Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-11
Updated: 2020-05-11
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:55:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24133189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nhitori/pseuds/Nhitori
Summary: Fill for Banned Together Bingo 2020 Square:Normalizes Trans Lives.Zelda remembers the joy on Link's face when wearing the Vai outfit, and begins to wonder.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 92
Collections: Banned Banned Together Bingo 2020, Banned Together Bingo 2020





	The Princess and The Hero

After being freed from Calamity Ganon’s grasp, Zelda wasn’t completely sure how to return to normal life. For a century now, she’d been more of a concept than a person- The silent princess, trapped in eternal battle, holding back a terrible force from ravaging her kingdom. Likewise, she could tell Link felt a similar way- He too, had been a concept. The legendary hero. He’d traveled all over Hyrule in order to defeat Ganon once and for all, to free Zelda, and barely even stopped to think. Neither of them, for decades, had needed to think.

There were still goals, of course. It wasn’t as if defeating Ganon meant everything was over and done with and fine now- Hyrule had to be rebuilt, and of course it was their responsibility to be involved in that process. Nonetheless, the process wasn’t one which could inspire the same single-mindedness that both of Hyrule’s saviors had grown accustomed to over the unrelenting passage of time that had governed their lives, the ultimate goal at the end of the path-

Without that, there were far too many things to consider, and Zelda couldn’t put it out of her mind. Mostly, it was about Link. Mostly, it was about _a particular aspect_ of Link. She couldn’t shake the image of it, of everything she saw him do along his journey, there was the one thing which stood out. How particularly… _Starry-eyed_ he had been when he’d doffed the Gerudo Vai garments. It made her wonder. Idly, at first, but as time wore on it just wouldn’t leave her head, and eventually, a year after she’d been rescued, Zelda finally decided to approach Link about the thoughts she couldn’t shake.

“Link?” She stood at the doorway of the home that he owned in Hateno. While she had returned to Hyrule Castle right away, in spite of the state of ruin much of it was in, he had purchased this home during the course of his journey across Hyrule and was reluctant to part with it. “I hope you don’t mind me dropping by this way.”

He lifted his head and shook it, then motioned for her to step inside. He didn’t speak much, but she had never had any trouble understanding what he meant. Their entire lives, as far as she could recall, they’d been close enough for that. She took a deep breath, and stepped further into the home, claiming a chair for herself.

“You probably want to sit down for this, Link.”

He blinked, but then pulled up his own chair and sat directly across from her. Even now, he had his hair down, and it had grown a bit in the last year. Counter to that, Zelda had cut her own shorter. With Link staring back at her like this, she was somehow both getting cold feet and being further encouraged to actually voice her thoughts. The thoughts were reinforced, but the willingness to state them was waning just by infliction of now being in the same room as the person she had wished to speak to. He tilted his head to one side at her comparatively unreadable silence.

“Ah…” She chuckled nervously. “I’m sorry, I’m just not completely sure how to bring this up. I suppose I should just… Come right out with it, shouldn’t I?”

Link nodded.

“You…” Zelda took another deep breath. “Say, you’ve noticed, haven’t you? That you and I look an awful lot alike.”

Another nod.

“I suppose that what I’m getting at here is, well, I happened to notice how enthused you were about wearing Gerudo Vai clothing. And it isn’t as if this hasn’t been done before, you know. The triforce of power needs its three sides, but that isn’t to say our roles are set in stone. What I mean is that.” Zelda took another deep breath, then continued with a smile. “I can’t say I’m particularly attached to being ‘the princess’. I truly wouldn’t mind being ‘the hero’, if this role is the one that you would prefer!”

Link sat there for a moment, then she gave one more nod- this time with a smile spreading across her face.

Zelda clapped his hands together once. “Oh, wonderful! I didn’t misread the situation… I really was concerned, but I was right, yes? You just looked so happy wearing that outfit, and frankly…” He reached up to rub a bit of his own hair between his fingers. “I wasn’t sure what it was, but I was feeling uncomfortable as well. It was high time that we traded, wasn’t it?”

Link stood up and put her hands on Zelda’s shoulders.

“Heh.” He chuckled again, this time in amusement rather than anxiety. “Whyever was I so nervous? Fate has always supported these kinds of shuffles, Impa told me that a long time ago. I guess I was kind of hoping that I was right…”

Link took a step back and leaned back on her heels, looking up at the ceiling while she thought for a minute. Then, she spoke aloud for the first time since Zelda’s arrival. “Let’s swap wardrobes too.”

The way the wheels of fate worked, it seemed, was such that these things were relatively easy. Link’s voice when she did speak already sounded much more feminine that it previously had, a fact which led her to clap her hands over her mouth in surprise, before letting out just a small, giddy giggle when she looked to Zelda again.

“We should,” Zelda agreed, “Though, one thing worries me a bit. I know you’re fond of this place, but if you are the princess now, you’ll be expected to spend your time in Hyrule Castle.”

In reply, Link just gestured at the house around her. Zelda understood that, too- The people here were used to being the place that the hero of Hyrule came to rest his hat, so if Hyrule Castle now had to belong to Link, this home would belong to him- And of course, she trusted him to take good care of it. He would, of course.

As for the people of Hyrule, well. As long as they each stepped into their roles the way they’d be expected to, nobody would think twice about the change. It wasn’t a fact about the wheels of fate this time, that they would blind the princess’s subjects- Rather, there was a historical precedent quite enough, for Zelda to become a man and for Link to become a woman, it wasn’t out of the ordinary at all. And while Zelda noticed that Link was happier than he’d seen her in a while, he was smiling too- Perhaps, he had done this for Link’s sake. Or perhaps he’d done it for his own. In any case, well.

Taking time to think had turned out quite nicely for them both.


End file.
